U(22 collections)SCUA

United States Information Service Photographs of Laos, 1961-1969.

Photographs taken in the 1960s by the United States Information Service depicting Lao dignitaries, the funeral of King Sisavongvong, the cremation of Prince Ratsamphanthavong at Luong Prabong, a Pathet Lao soldier, a Yao woman, and a Lao woman.

Chartered in 1835, the Boston and Maine Railroad was one of the largest and most successful railroad operations in northern New England for over a century, hauling both freight and passengers. The Railway began a slow decline as early as the 1930s with the decline in manufacturing in the region and later with the decline of passenger service. It came through a bankruptcy in 1970 and continues as a non-operating ward of Pan Am Railways.

This collection consists of blueprint valuations of the assets of the Boston and Maine Railroad, compiled by the Bureau of Valuation of the U.S. Interstate Commerce Commission in 1931.

Subjects

U.S. Presidential Campaign Audio and Video Tapes, 1972-1988.

8 boxes (12 linear feet).Call no.: MS 120

The collection consists of audio and visual tapes of radio and television coverage of U.S. presidential elections in 1972, 1980, and 1988. In total there are more than 250 tapes containing interviews with the candidates, election commercials, speeches, party conventions, and news media commentary.

Subjects

Presidents--United States--Election

Types of material

Undertaker and Home Furnishings Dealer Account Book, 1881.

Owner of business (identity unknown) who served in the vicinity of Wrentham, Massachusetts, as a purveyor of home decorating supplies and furnishings and as an undertaker. The account book includes records of goods for sale and services provided (repairing and upholstering furniture, packing bodies in ice, carrying to tomb, grave digging, etc.); forms of payment (cash, exchange of goods such as soap, eggs, tables, and chairs, and exchange of services); and lists of customers, including City Mills Felting Company, A.H. Morse, J.A. Guild, Joseph Hutchinson, Charles Scott, and Foster Smith.

UAW District 65 Collection, ca.1985.

The decision of clerical and technical workers at Boston University to organize with District 65 of the UAW was as rooted in the labor movement as it was in the womens movement. By the early 1970s, office workers at B.U. were dissatsified with working conditions that included — among other grievances — sexual harassment and a classification system that did not value “women’s work.” In 1979 after an intense struggle with the administration, B.U. finally recognized the union and signed their first contract.

The collection includes a printed history and videotape documenting unionization activities at Boston University’s Medical Campus.

Types of material

UBCJA Holyoke District Council Records, 1906-1978.

10 boxes (4 linear feet).Call no.: MS 108

Minutes, correspondence, membership lists, ledgers, and daybooks of the the Holyoke District Council and the local affiliates of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (Locals 656, 390 and 1503). Together with the records of the Pioneer Valley District Council and the Massachusetts State Council, this collection offers comprehensive documentation for the UCBJA in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts.

UBCJA Massachusetts State Council Records, 1892-1980.

One of the largest building trade unions in the U.S., the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America was established in 1881 by a convention of carpenters’ unions. An early member of the American Federation of Labor, the Brotherhood began as a radical organization, but beginning in the 1930s, were typically aligned with the conservative wing of the labor movement.

The records of the Massachusetts State Council of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America contain reports and other information generated during the union’s annual conventions as well as copies of the constitution and by-laws, handbooks, and histories of the union.

Contributors

UBCJA Pioneer Valley District Council and Affiliates Records, 1899-1978.

7 boxes (3 linear feet).Call no.: MS 231

By-laws, minutes, and correspondence of the Pioneer Valley District Council and Affiliates of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America. Together with the records of the Massachusetts State Council and the Holyoke District Council, this collection offers comprehensive documentation for the UCBJA in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts

Contributors

UBCJA Springfield District Council Records, 1885-1973.

40 boxes (23 linear feet).Call no.: MS 110

The first local of the Carpenters Union to appear in the Springfield, Massachusetts area was Local 96, chartered in 1885. Shortly thereafter, locals appeared in Holyoke (Local 390), Chicopee (Local 685), and several other Connecticut River Valley towns. Similarly, other locals emerged around ethnic groups, particularly French Canadians, who began to populate a signifigant portion of the trade. In 1906, Springfield locals formed a District Council to coordinate collective bargaining apprenticeship and work rules in the local construction industry. Holyoke carpenters soon followed by establishing their own council. In 1968, the Springfield Locals merged into one, Local 32, which in turn merged with the Holyoke District Council in 1973 to form Local 108.

By-laws, correspondence, and subject files of the Springfield District Council; minutes, local membership records, local and district financial records, contracts, agreements and trials, and some correspondence for Local 96 (Springfield), Local 685 (Chicopee), Local 177 (Springfield), Local 222 (Westfield), and Local 32 (Springfield).

United Congregational Church of Holyoke (Holyoke, Mass.) Records, ca.1830-1990.

The present day United Congregational Church of Holyoke is the product of complex history of growth and consolidation of five separate churches responding to the changing demographics and spiritual needs of the city. Established in 1799, the First Congregational Church in Holyoke was initially a small congregation perched above the floodplain south of the center of town, sharing preachers with the equally sparse population of Baptists until the establishment of the First Baptist Church in 1826. The First Congregational Church was finally erected in 1838, and ten years later, the Second Church was established in to serve the needs of the growing Protestant population in the city center, building their own church in 1853 as the mill economy was booming. Reaching out to the millworkers, members of the Second Church opened the Grace Mission in 1870, which spun off into its own church in 1896. Skinner Chapel was founded in 1909 as an addition to the Second Congregational Church, dedicated to the prominent Skinner family. Finally, the German Reformed Church was organized in 1892, though meetings were held years earlier. In the latter part of the twentieth century, however, declining memberships in each of these churches led to a series of mergers, beginning in 1961 when the German Reformed Church united with the First Congregational to become the First United Congregational Church. Grace Church and the First UCC merged in 1973 to become Grace United, and in 1996, Grace joined with the Second Congregational Church to become the present UCC of Holyoke.

The records of the UCC of Holyoke document over 200 years of the ecclesiatical history of an industrial city. In addition to records of membership, baptisms, marriages, and church governance, the collection includes valuable records of the women’s missionary society, the German Maenner Bund, and a long run of church newsletters that offer insight into the weekly course of events in the religious community. Materials relating to Skinner Chapel are part of the collections of Wistariahurst Museum.